Down to Earth Garden Center celebrates business milestone

TRYON – Fran and Gary Garside were meant to be together. Their mutual love of plants, landscaping and horses inspired them to come to Tryon. In November, they celebrated the 20-year anniversary of their Down to Earth Garden and Home Center.

Fran Gardside has worked in landscaping since she was 18 years old. “I got into it in college,” she said. She grew up riding hunter/jumpers in Birmingham, Ala. and brought her passion for horses and landscaping to the foothills in 1978. She started her first garden center in Spartanburg and later ran a landscape business out of her horse farm, Vestavia Farms in Columbus.

Though Gary was a successful attorney in Chicago, he never lost his connection to his rural Wisconsin childhood. “He would grow and sell orchids to the big companies in Chicago,” said Fran. “He did it as a hobby.”

Gary originally came to Tryon for fox hunting, but continued his passion for orchids and gardening. He achieved Master Gardener certificate through the Polk Community Extension, and, according to Fran, is a true expert on growing things.

The couple opened Down to Earth Garden and Home Center in November of 1997. The white building located on Highway 176 between Tryon and Landrum used to be a real estate office. Today it includes not only the main building, but also a covered outdoor area with long tables filled with green and growing things.

Depending on the season, the green house in back is filled with blooms with a rainbow of colors. In spring and summer, flowering plants decorate the shelves and tickle the air with delightful scents. Fall brings the orange of pumpkins and winter is bursting with red and green poinsettias, and the sharp, crisp scent and deep earth tones of evergreens.

Down to Earth Garden Center also offers the popular “farm to table” side of the plant world. Inside the store the shelves are filled with fully cooked, frozen foods that are ideal for grab and go meals. Brought to you by chef Richard Ruben of Seasons to Taste, the foods are locally sourced dishes that change with each season.

Gracing the walls of the store are beautiful water colors by Tryon artist Kim Attwooll. Attwooll also fills racks throughout the room with greeting cards featuring her soft paintings of flowers, plants, animals and, of course, horses. She also offers art classes and workshops at the garden center throughout the year.

Fran credits the store’s team with much of their success throughout the years. The garden center’s manager Dylan Thomas not only learned gardening from her mother and grandparents in Minnesota, she brings years of experience in customer service and retail businesses. Thomas, who is also a horse lover and grew up riding jumpers, helps Fran with the boarding, training and selling of horses through Vestavia Farms.

Fran said the Down to Earth team does try to stress customer service and believes that is the secret to their success. The garden center is well known for providing large and small potted containers for both private and retail customers. They offer catering to retail businesses, provide foliage decoration for parties and events, handle volume sales, provide home arrangements, and deliver and pick up items for their customers.

The garden center opens Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and seasonally on Sundays. While they close after the Christmas holidays, they are back again in spring to help their customers have a successful spring planting season.